(Gaza) The civil defense of the Gaza Strip announced on Tuesday that 46 people waiting for aid had been killed and dozens of others injured by Israeli fire near distribution centers in the Palestinian territory hungry by more than 20 months of war.
“Twenty -one dead and around 150 injured were transferred to the hospital […] After the Israeli occupation forces targets citizens’ gatherings awaiting help “between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. (7 p.m. and 11 p.m. East) near the crossroads of Netzarim, in the center of the Gaza Strip, MAHMOUD BASSAL, spokesperson for this first aid organization, told AFP.
Questioned by AFP, a spokesperson for the Israeli army said that he had “identified” a rally close to the positions of Israeli soldiers posted at the crossroads of Netzarim in the night. Information reported to the Israeli shots is “examined,” he added.
Bassal then reported 25 other people killed by Israeli fire in the south of the Gaza Strip, while civilians “tried to reach a humanitarian center” near Rafah, at the start of the morning.
Questioned by AFP on these words, the Israeli army did not react.
Images filmed by an AFP journalist show injured and visibly unconscious people, transported to a hospital.
“Sixty percent of the wounded who have been transferred to the Red Cross campaign hospital are in serious condition and most of them will die,” said Ziad Farhat, an ambulancer met at Nasser Hospital in Gaza, not advising people to “go to the aid centers”.
Mediation
Given the restrictions imposed on the media in the Gaza Strip and the difficulties of access to the field, AFP is not able to independently check the Bilans of Civil Defense.
Qatar, Germany, France insisted on Tuesday on the importance of a truce in Gaza, in parallel with the ceasefire announced by the United States between Israel and Iran.
The Prime Minister of Qatar, a mediating country between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, notably said that Doha worked for the resumption of negotiations for a new ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Israel very partially softened at the end of May a total blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip at the beginning of March, which led to very serious shortages of food, drugs and other basic necessities.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an organization with opaque financing supported by Israel and the United States, manages four parcel distribution centers on the besieged Palestinian territory, especially in the two sectors where shots took place on Tuesday.
PHOTO JEHAD ALSHRAFI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Relatives mourn the death of a Palestinian killed during a strike from the Israeli army at Shifa hospital in the city of Gaza on June 24, 2025.
« Abomination »
Thousands of people flock there every day in the hope of receiving food, have noted AFP correspondents, but its distributions give rise to chaotic scenes.
According to the Ministry of Health of Hamas Government for the Gaza Strip, 516 people have been killed and nearly 3,800 injured by Israeli fire since the end of May trying to reach food aid distribution in the Gaza Strip.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights qualified on Tuesday “war crime” the use of food as a weapon in Gaza, urging the Israeli army to “stop shooting people who try to get it”.
“The so-called“ mechanism ”of recently created aid is an abomination that humiliates and degrades desperate people. It is a deadly trap, costing more lives than it saves, ”also denounced Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).
The UN and humanitarian NGOs refuse to work with GHF, due to concerns about its processes and its neutrality.
The Gaza War was launched on October 7, 2023 by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel which led to the death of 1219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count made from official Israeli data.
More than 56,077 Palestinians, mainly civilians, were killed in the Gaza Strip in the military Israeli reprisals campaign, according to data from the Ministry of Health of Hamas for Gaza, deemed reliable by the UN.
